Fighting a Losing Battle
by Nodameee
Summary: "Eren, Eren Jaeger. Don't call me Mr Jaeger, it makes me feel old. I'm only 22." Eren, one of the best students in high school. Rejected a top university offer. "Just call me Levi, 23." Levi, an already successful young business man only at the age of 23. "Oh, you're a year older than me." "Yeah and you're a year younger than me." THIS IS ERERI (LEVI X EREN), YAOI.


HOPE

 _ **Note:  
Hello! This is my new fanfic. Hopefully you'll like it, even just a bit :)  
Before you start reading, I just wanted to say that no matter who you are, where you're from, what age you are, I will always be here to have a chat if you feel down or just wanting to talk to someone. Sometimes, it's easier to say certain stuff to people you don't know. This fanfic is actually written for one of my close friends, she is experiencing break up problems at the moment. I wrote this to help give her hope before she does something reckless. To all of you reading this, take a look around your friends. You will find that a lot of people are actually struggling, give them a hand and help them, even just by talking to them. Trust me, it helps.**_

 _ **Anywayyy, enough of my boring talk. Enjoy the fic! The first paragraph is actually written in Eren's P.O.V just in case you were confused :)**_

 _-.-.-.-.-.-_

When I was younger, my mother always told me 'There is nothing to fear but fear itself.'

I kind of understood. Usually, people fear what would happen next, the outcome. When actually, what the people should actually be afraid of is _feeling_ fear. The fear of something is actually much worse than what the actual event turns out to be. Basically, if you avoid what you fear you won't make any progress and will remain stuck at that point until you find the courage to confront the fear.

To me, fear was only an illusion, just like the ghosts of a nightmare. At first, I thought everyone thought the same as me, but as I grew up, I realised that this wasn't the case.

From my young eyes, I saw adults drinking in fear of losing jobs. I saw teenagers self-harming, bullying, in fear that they wouldn't be able to fit in this society. Then came the students, suiciding because they _feared_ that their grades wasn't the way their parents expected them to be.

I felt something bubble within me, a mixture of anger and determination. This needed to change, someone needed to help these people. So, I started helping people conquer their fears, starting from helping my best friend Armin get over his fear of the dark, and my adopted sister Mikasa get over her fear of dogs. I was 6 at that time.

It wasn't long before I realised I was good at this, my grades at school were always at the top. When I graduated from high school, a top university offered to accept me. Everyone was thrilled, my parents were relieved and me…. Well, I rejected the offer.

A lot of people asked me "Why?" I would just look at them and smile while saying "Because there are people out there who need me. I know what I want to do, and I'm going to do it." I wasn't surprised when Mikasa and Armin rejected their universities to join me.

Together, we created a company called HOPE, there was no meaning to that name, all we hoped for was for the people who came here hopeless, to leave with hope. The company grew quick, in just a few years, we were already well known and people travelled from afar just to come here for help.

I was asked to make speeches in schools and all sorts of places, and my name became familiar to a lot of people. Every one of my clients were unique, they were the people Mikasa and the others couldn't handle, the ones with problems different to most people.

I still remember clearly, it was my fifth year working when I met the guy who was 'afraid of loving'.

-.-.-.-.-.-

"Welcome to HOPE! What can we do for you?" Armin smiled brightly at the short male who walked into the building, he's worked in this company with Eren for five years and he can't help but admit, he's learnt a lot from his emerald eyed friend. Just from the smile he received from the short male, he knew he wasn't an easy person. He seemed to be having problems with his facial nerves or something, his smile seemed really forced. Actually, he probably wouldn't even call that a smile. As he got closer, Armin felt a shiver down his spine. This man wasn't just uneasy, he also seemed to block out any kind of emotion a normal human being should have. From the door behind him, he heard someone sneeze. The short male frowned but said nothing, Armin's smile stiffened "Um, hello. Is there anything I can do for you?" He managed to force the words out of his throat.  
His height didn't seem to have an effect on how intimidating he is…

"I have an appointment with Mr Jaeger."

"Ah, a-alright. Please give me your name?"

"Levi Ackerman."

"O-ok, please take a seat there while I have a word with him." He saw the male nod and walked elegantly to sit down and wait. Armin sat down and sighed while dialling a few numbers into the phone "Eren, you have a client" He looked at his clipboard and read the name out to his friend "A Levi Ackerman."  
"Alright, call him up." His friend's voice said on the other end of the phone.  
"Ok." He ended the call, the door behind him opened, and Sasha's head appeared from behind "Oi Armin, who's that dude? He seems like a hard client. Is he for Eren? Gosh he's cold." Armin looked behind her and saw a packet of chips on her already messy desk, he assumed she was the one who sneezed. "He's Mr Ackerman, yes he's Eren's client and seriously Sasha, clean up your table… Look, you've got your stuff all over Jean's table as well." Sasha grinned and slammed the door shut in his face. Armin sighed and stood up, Levi was typing into his phone with a frown. "Uh, Mr Jaeger will see you now." Levi looked up and nodded "Please come with me." Armin walked to the elevator and pressed the up button, he fidgeted around with his fingers and looked around nervously. Levi was still typing on his phone.

The ring that came from the elevator made Armin jump slightly, he quickly gathered up his thoughts and walked in, pressing the 8th floor. Levi had finally put his phone back into his pocket and was staring at the increasing numbers that was showing on the elevator. A small 'ding' was heard as they reached the 8th floor, it wasn't long before they reached a large light brown door, "Mr Ackerman is here." Armin said while gently knocking on the door.  
"Come in." Levi heard a gentle voice speak from the other side of the door. Armin opened the door and gestured Levi to go in before closing the door behind him.

He looked around, and gently slid his finger across one of the few furniture he saw in the office. There was no dust on his fingers and he smiled slightly. Then he looked at the ground where he was supposed to take his shoes off, a pair of black shoes were already placed neatly on the side. Nodding in approval he took his shoes off and also placed them neatly beside the pair of black shoes. Footsteps were heard and a silhouette appeared on the white curtains, the curtains were pulled apart and a pair of bright emerald eyes appeared in sight.

"You must be Mr Ackerman." The bright eyed male spoke with a small smile, a smile that reveals a degree of happiness and comfort but also a level of privacy and holding back.

"Hello, Mr Jaeger. Hopefully you can be experienced enough to handle a client like me." Levi smirked, this is a very interesting guy.

"Don't doubt my abilities Mr Ackerman." His smile changed a bit, adding in a sense of proactivity and continued "You have a cleaning OCD, judging from the way you walked into my room and touched the first piece of furniture you saw." He walked over to the piece of furniture and gently swiped his finger across the surface "It's clean isn't it." He looked at Levi and grinned.  
"You also took interest in looking at how my shoes were put. The way a pair of shoes are placed determine if the person is tidy or not right? Let's you decide if you want to come in or not."  
"I never said tha-"  
"Yeah, but if it wasn't like that, you wouldn't put it the same way as me."  
"…"

"I can also tell that you are a confident business man."  
"Wha-"  
"Shoes." Levi automatically looked down at his shoes and looked back at the emerald eyed male.  
"Your shoes, are more worn out at the heel. Confident people tend to lean back while walking, this causes the heel of the shoe to get worn out quicker."

"I know you're a business man from the type of clothing you wear, a high level one too. Nice Prada suit you've got there."

"Are you trying to start a fight with me?" Levi raised his eyebrow at the smile and comments.

"No, I'm just inviting you in to talk about your problems, Levi." The bright eyed male smiled genuinely and turned around to walk back into his office. Levi shook his head, this person.

It was when they were in his room when Levi was finally able to look at him properly "So, what's your name?" The green eyed male was wearing a normal grey button down shirt with black dress pants. A long brown coat hung neatly on his chair. His short brown hair was arranged neatly so that it didn't cover his eyes. The room had good lighting with the large floor-to-ceiling windows facing out to the city, the atmosphere somehow made him relax.

"Eren, Eren Jaeger. Don't call me Mr Jaeger, it makes me feel old. I'm only 22."

Levi smirked "Just call me Levi, 23."  
"Oh, you're a year older than me."  
"Yeah and you're a year younger than me."  
"….Wow, I didn't know that." Eren pulled a face sarcastically.

"Well now you do." Levi replied back with the same amount of sarcasm.

"Do you like cats Levi?" Eren walked over to his chair and sat down.  
"Ok, now what. Do I have some sort of microscopic cat fur on me or something?"  
"No, first of all, that wouldn't happen. At least not happen on you. If you own a cat, you wouldn't allow cat fur on your precious suit because you're a person with OCD. Come on, you like everything neat and clean. Second of all, cat fur isn't microscopic. If I can see that cat fur, then so can you."

"It was just a question…" Eren sighed.  
"Well you have the shittiest questions."  
"Would 'Do you like bread?' suit you better?"  
"…No, I don't like cats. Why would I like cats, they would scratch my furniture and wreck my house." Eren chuckled.

"So, who told you to come see me? No, I didn't deduce that from anything. It's just people don't usually ask to see me personally. They normally go to Mikasa or Marco."  
"…Hanji. Hanji Zoe. She told me to come find you, said that you would be interested in my problem. Also said that you could solve any problem I'm having."  
Eren's eyes widened.  
"Hanji..? How is she? Did she get into the university she wanted to get in so badly? The one with the huge as science lab and fancy science equipment?" Levi felt the edge of his lips creep up.  
"Oh? So you know Hanji is a science freak as well?"  
"Oh you bet. I was in the same high school as her, we were in the same class! I remember we nearly blew up the science lab once. It was _crazy_. And there was this time, we made these small smoke bombs in chem to distract the teacher and get out of class."  
"Didn't the teacher realise you two were gone?"  
"Oh yeah, he did. But we had all these pretty grades and pretty achievements so he let us off."  
Levi realised how colourful Eren's face was, filled with all sorts of different emotions. His eyes were the most beautiful thing he had seen, it seemed as if they were dancing with every word he said.

"Ok, my story telling is done, let's hear your story Levi. Also, how long are you going to stay standing?" Levi could see the laughter within his eyes and felt slightly embarrassed, he reached for a chair "I was going to sit down anyway…" he grumbled quietly.

"Or were you…" Eren winked at him, receiving a glare "Sorry, sorry. So tell me, what's your problem?"

"I think I have a problem with 'loving'." Levi cleared his throat and got straight to the point.  
"Loving..?" Eren didn't look up from the notebook he was writing in, but the sound gave it away that he had never experienced a client like this.  
"Yeah loving."  
"You mean, loving like you're scared of falling in love or…?" Eren looked up from his notebook. Large eyes filled with curiosity.  
"No, well…I wouldn't know. I've never fallen in love with anyone or anything." He paused to think "I guess I can't love? Hanji said that I may have a fear of falling in love or something."

"Mhmm…" The room fell quiet, only the sound of Eren's pencil scratching the paper was heard. A few minutes later Eren dropped his pen and looked up at Levi "I don't think you can't love. From what I see, you've just blocked everything out. You don't _know_ what it feels to love. To you, it's probably too abstract to understand. You're a business man, you like realistic things like numbers, things you actually know and understand. Maybe you've loved something before, but you never knew that was the feeling of 'love'. I think you don't fear love, you fear the unknown. You close up to anything unknown or anything you feel is not safe to understand, love is one of them." Eren paused and tilted his head while smiling at the raven haired man who sat there with a serious expression on his face looking at the ground, probably trying to process the information Eren just chucked at him.  
"Levi." The man looked up as he heard his name being called, an unusual confused expression was spread across his face as he looked towards Eren.

"I can and will help you. It's not that hard." Levi felt his heart skip a beat as he looked into those green eyes. He saw an outstretched hand "If you believe me, shake my hand." Automatically, he reached out and shook the other male's hand.

Eren smiled, the edges of his eyes crinkling, the top line of his white teeth were showing, aligned perfectly. The sun splashed down greedily on him making his bright green eyes sparkle slightly, his happiness gives a warm glow…

And it was starting to rub on Levi.

-.-.-.-.-.-

A few hours had passed since Levi left, it was arranged that he was coming in at the same time next week.  
"Eren!" He heard his name being called and turned to see who was calling him. He saw a familiar face and waved "Hey Armin"  
The blonde looked at him with narrowed eyes "You met someone your type?" Eren froze in his tracks.  
"What?" He looked at Armin.  
"Your eyes, they seem brighter than usual. Also, your footsteps are lighter. You seem in an extra happy mood." Eren opened his mouth to speak but Armin cut him off "And the tone you talked to Levi with, was different to all the other clients you have."  
"You…listened to our conversation." Eren raised an eyebrow  
"It's not like I wanted to, I could hear you showing off your _awesome_ observation skills, ALL THE WAY FROM THE ELEVATOR." Armin pulled a face at his friend, then his face softened "But seriously Eren… your 22, ever since your first break up, you've never dated again. I'll be glad if you found someone your type."  
"…"

"Jesus Christ Armin, your observation skills have actually improved." Eren sighed and turned his head away from him.  
Armin smiled, that was the way his best friend admitted he liked Levi. "So, when you planning to make your next move?"

Eren turned around with a sly smile "When are you gonna make your first move with 'You Know Who'?" He nudged his blonde friend, making him blush.

"W-what are you t-talking about…"

"OH PLEASE ARMIN, don't try to act innocent on me. You know who I am, I can tell you like him. You always stutter when I talk about him." He winked, causing Armin to blush even more.

"Eren are you bullying Armin?" Mikasa's voice appeared suddenly out of nowhere, startling the two.

"The hell Mika, does this look like I'm bullying him." Eren said before turning around.

"Yes, Eren's bullying me." Armin backstabbed his friend

"Eren?" Mikasa turned to look at her brother

"Eren's being extra mean to me today because he's met someone." Armin winked, Mikasa's eyes widened.

"YOU…MET SOMEONE? IT'S A GUY RIGHT? IS HE HOT? WHEN ARE YOU GUYS GOING TO GET MARRIED?" Mikasa grabbed Eren's shoulders and asked seriously.

The emerald eyed male sighed "Look who's bullying who now." He said while shooting a side glare to Armin who was standing there trying to hide a laugh.

"EREN! YOU HAVEN'T ANSWERED." Mikasa shook him.  
"OK, OK! STOP SHAKING ME." He looked at his sister "First, tell me how you know it's a guy." Eren thought it over quickly in his head, yes, maybe Armin could tell he met someone because of the things he observed, but… Mikasa couldn't possibly have known it was a guy.

"No reason. You just seem like you would date a guy."

"….." Eren stood there staring at Mikasa for one whole minute.

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"Ugh what is wrong with my life." He groaned and turned to walk out of the large building.

"Do you wanna come to my place and eat today?" The only girl between them asked as they followed him out.

"Sure, what's for dinner today?"

"Fried rice and soup."

"Yum, Mika's the best cook I know."

"No, actually. Eren is. His future husband is really lucky!"

"Just be quiet already Armin…"

-.-.-.-.-.-

It's been a few months since Levi's been coming to Eren for help. Although his problem has mostly been solved, every week at a particular time, people would see him walk into the building to see a certain someone...It was also noticed that the times he came were gradually increasing. His 'facial nerve problem' as Armin called it, was actually improving. The respect people gave to Eren raised a notch too, must have taken a certain amount of effort to make a big change like this with someone who had facial problems in such little time.  
"So, Levi tell me. What do you like to do in your free time?" Eren sat in his chair writing his documents and asked the shorter male who was casually sitting at the edge of his large table, his slim legs gracefully overlapping each other. He had a cup of tea in his hand, and was staring out the big windows in Eren's office.  
"Why do you ask?" Levi smirked, looking towards the busy brunette "Oh, I don't know. Maybe because you seem to be having a lot of free time lately?" Eren rolled his eyes at the male sitting on his table.  
"Oh? You don't welcome me?"  
"No no, I'm perfectly fine with some just randomly walking into my office at unexpected times to sit on my table and stare outside my windows. I mean, that's totally what normal people do right?"  
"Shut up Eren." Levi answered lazily, not really caring.

Eren sighed, it's always him. The one person he couldn't handle.

"You haven't answered me Levi."

"I read and do work."

Eren laughed loudly, and ended up with a glare from Levi. "Seriously, you have no life. Like who does work in their free time."

"Not like you're any better."

"Please Levi," Eren yawned "I don't have any work…"  
"Yes, I know, I know. 'To me, work is my free time' blah blah blah I get it alright." Levi sighed and sipped his tea. He jumped down from the table and grabbed a few papers from his suitcase, then walked to sit down on the black couch in the room. Eren let out a light chuckle and continued with his work. The room fell into comfortable silence.

It was already 4:30 in the evening by the time Levi raised his head from the papers again, he stood up and stretched while taking a glance at Eren.

His eyes widened as he saw that the usual lively eyes were now closed, and his head was within his arms on the table, the brat was asleep.

"Hmm…" He slowly bent down so that his eyes were at the same level as the table and observed Eren's face, there was a slight twist in his heart when he saw the light shadows under his eyes.

"When was the last time you slept you idiotic brat." Although the words were harsh, his tone was surprisingly gentle. His sleeping face made him look more of a child than an adult, and Levi remembered that he was only 22. Even though he had the knowledge and experience of someone much older than that, he was just a young adult after all.

"Not that I can say much myself…" He mumbled while taking off his jacket and placing it over the younger male's shoulders, then walking back over to the couch and resuming what he was doing before, but the sunlight was warm and it wasn't long before he started to feel drowsy himself "Maybe a small nap once in a while won't hurt." With that in mind, his eyelids got heavier.

-.-.-.-.-.-

The sharp sound of high heels echoed in the large building and stopped in front of the desk Armin was sitting behind, causing the blonde to look up. A young woman wearing a smart business suit and brown hair tied up in a ponytail was standing there looking down at him with a hint of curiosity carefully hidden in her dark brown eyes behind a pair of glasses. Strangely enough, Armin couldn't deduce anything just from looking at her. It seemed as if she had hidden everything about herself and made her outside look perfect enough for nothing to be told. A wide smile stretched slowly across her face.

"Oooh, you must be Armin."

Armin smiled politely "Yes, I am. Welcome to HOPE. Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Ah yes, I want to meet Eren. Eren Jaeger. Can you please take me to his room or office?"

Armin froze as he heard the name of his best friend being called out "You…you know Eren?"

"Of course! We were high school friends."

"I see, please follow me." Armin stood up from his place and walked in front of the strange woman, leading her to the elevator.

"Sooo Armin, how's Eren these days?" The woman asked cheerfully

"Well, he's loving his job and handling his clients quite well." Armin said thoughtfully, he looked at the woman and saw her thinking thoughtfully too.

"I wonder… if he's finally met someone now…" The woman frowned, looking down.

"Hopefully…" Armin sighed.

"He hasn't dated anyone since his first breakup." Their heads shot up at the same time as they looked at each other.

"You know?!" Armin's eyes widened as he looked at her

The woman scratched he head "Yeah? I know." That was all they said before they reached the doors leading to Eren's office.

"It was nice meeting you Armin" The woman grinned at him before walking into Eren's office.

"Wait, what's your na-" The doors closed in his face and Armin sighed, why is it that everyone likes to close doors in his face.

-.-.-.-.-.-

"Hellooo….?" She said while taking her shoes off and gently pulling the white curtains apart. She heard no reply so she took a look around the room behind the curtains. "Eh?" She rubbed her eyes behind her glasses.

"Well, this is quite unusual." Her lips curved up slightly at the sight before her eyes. Levi had fallen asleep on the couch and Eren… she walked gently towards her friend and bent down slightly. "You haven't changed much have you?" She giggled quietly. Just as she was about to leave, the jacket that was lying on top of Eren's shoulders caught her eye.

"Oh?" She looked at Levi who wasn't wearing his jacket. "This is getting interesting." She readjusted the jacket on top of Eren with an amused face and took another glance at Levi before walking out of the room.

"You're still here?" Armin was leaning against the wall with this hands in his pockets.

"I haven't got your name." He sighed.

"Oh, I haven't said it yet? Well, sorry about that haha. My name's Hanji." She held out a business card.

"Hanji…..Zoe…? YOU'RE HANJI?" Armin yelled in surprise

"SHHHHHH." Hanji quickly clamped her hand over his mouth "Eren's sleeping inside!" she whispered.

"Ooh, sorry!" Armin started to whisper like her

"Let's go downstairs."

"Ok."

They made their way down, when the elevator door opened, a familiar face was waiting on the other side.

"Mikasa?" Armin called out to his friend, but she wasn't listening to him. Instead her eyes were on Hanji who was next to him.  
"Han…ji?" she called out hesitantly.  
"Mikasa." Hanji's smile dropped a bit, and she looked at the ground. "It's been a while."  
Mikasa shook her head "No, its fine. How are you?"  
"Could be better."

Armin looked at Hanji then at Mikasa, he repeated this cycle a couple of times. It seemed as if they had something between them.

"I'm sorry Mikasa." Hanji's voice pulled him back to reality  
"Hanji! How many times have I told you, it's not your fault!" Mikasa was acting weird, she wasn't calm like she usually was.

"But…"

Mikasa put her hands on Hanji's shoulders and looked into her eyes "It's not your fault."  
She nodded and Mikasa pulled away, she turned to look at Armin and smiled "Where's Eren?"  
"Sleeping." Hanji replied for him.

"That's good, he hasn't been sleeping much lately." She closed her eyes and sighed.  
"Care for some coffee?"  
"Sure, why not."

With that, the three of them walked away towards the small café in the building.

-.-.-.-.-.-

"Mmm…" Eren groaned a little as he lifted his head from the table. His neck was sore from lying in the same position for too long. Something fell from his back as he sat up. "What..?" He saw a jacket lying on the ground.

"…"

His eyes stopped at the person asleep on the couch in his room. Eren stood up silently with a smile he failed to hide and walked over to the black haired man, he placed the jacket gently over his stomach and prepared to walk out of the room so Levi could rest some more.

"Eren…" He turned around sharply to find that Levi was still asleep.  
"Why…no…don't leave…." Another string of words made Eren's head snap up, green eyes filled with concern. He knelt down beside the couch and stared at Levi's sleeping face, hesitating to do anything else. Levi mumbled a few more words under his breath that Eren couldn't make out the meaning of and stayed still.

"Levi…" he finally reached out to soothe the lines on Levi's forehead. He felt some kind of emotion within himself, and remembered something someone said to him ages ago. This was the feeling of 'being loved'. He wasn't stupid, he could see his own presence becoming more and more important in those silvery-blue eyes. Maybe, just maybe, Levi could be that special person in his life.

He sighed while standing up once again and left the room, the time on his watch was 6:00. He should be getting some dinner.

As soon as he got down to the first floor, he immediately heard laughter coming from the café. Although it wasn't unusual for people to still be here at this time, it usually wasn't this loud. A familiar face appeared in front of him.

Corrections, three familiar faces.

"Mikasa, Armin and….Hanji?" His voice obviously startled the three, the chatter stopped abruptly as they heard their names being called.

Hanji sprang up from her chair and ran up to hug Eren "EREN! I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU IN AGES" she yelled cheerfully. Eren hugged back and smiled "It's nice to see you too science freak."

Hanji pulled back and spun around "I work in a big office like yours too now!" Eren grinned "You can't fool me Hanji." She stopped to look at Eren.  
"What?"

"Don't your feet hurt? They look quite painful to me…" Mikasa and Armin both looked down at her feet at the same time. At the back of her foot was a red mark. "You're not used to wearing high heels, therefore, you shake a bit while walking in them. I can see from the way your arms are held out slightly as if you're searching on natural instinct for something to hold on to. The shoes don't fit comfortably on you, so they are most likely new. In fact, this business suit looks pretty new to me too, not like something you would wear quite often to work."

"It's a new one I bought Eren." Hanji laughed  
"Hanji, judging from the person I know in high school, you wouldn't be wasting money on clothing. One or two different suits would probably the most for you. Besides, you don't look very comfortable in that suit anyway." The smile on Hanji's face grew wider as Eren continued.

"Also, I can smell ammonia on you, even though you tried to cover it off with perfume. Gosh Hanji, you should have known that ammonia is known for its strong scent, and perfume, is not going to cover it up. So where are you working as a scientist now?"

"Impressive… You're as good as they say Eren." Hanji said while clapping. She took her shoes off and sat down bare footed. Armin suddenly realised why he couldn't deduce anything from just looking at Hanji, how is it possible to deduce anything when the person you're looking at isn't even real?  
"Thanks, I've got another question for you." Eren looked at his friend  
"And that is?"  
"What was the real reason why you told Levi to come to me?"

 _ **Soooo, how does it seem so far? Liking it? I'd be grateful if you could leave me so thoughts :)  
Thanks!**_


End file.
